Two of a Kind
by Jaycie Victory
Summary: "Milah and Emma were much alike." Stream of consciousness one-shot; Hook POV. Covers season 2 and 3 up to 3x06; Captain Swan. All dialogue is lifted straight from the show.


**A/N This is my first Once Upon A Time fic. It's told from Hook's point of view, stream of consciousness style, with all dialogue referenced lifted directly from the show.**

** I'm relatively new to the show, but have quickly become addicted. Even more so to Captain Swan. I've been watching a lot of fanvids* of them (yes, I really am an OUAT geek) and it got me thinking about parallels - the show is rife with them. I started comparing Emma and Milah - this is what came out. **

**Hope you enjoy :)**

*******If you're into Captain Swan videos, I highly recommend xostelenaforeverox on Youtube; her videos are fantastic. Don't be put off if you're a Delena shipper - her videos are still fantastic ;)**

* * *

**Two of a Kind**

Milah and Emma were much alike.

Wry, passionate and brave. Fierce, fearless and occasionally feckless.  
Ceaselessly loyal to those they loved; rigidly sparing with whom they gave it to.

_"We're doing this. It might be stupid. It might be crazy, but we're doing it."_

Milah and Emma were very different.

One was uncontained emotion, wearing her joy, her longings, her disappointments like glittering jewelry for all to see. The other eking out feeling like she was afraid it would run out, hiding her light under a sarcastic bushel, protectively shielding her pearls with a coldly beautiful shell.

_"No, you're afraid. Afraid to talk, to reveal yourself. To trust me."_

Milah would run away with a pirate after one life-changing evening; Emma would hold back even once you'd risked that life for her.

_"Try something new, darling __–__ it's called trust."_

Emma was a loner; Milah couldn't bear to be alone.

He and Milah were two of a kind, and that's why he'd loved her.

* * *

Emma and he were much alike.

_"You and I – we understand each other."_

_"I, too, know what it is to lose hope."_

The Swan girl with her sun-hair and burdened soul. So full of light, so dark with pain.

The clink of a manacle round his wrist – broken trust, broken dreams.

_"__Something that was once magical, full of hope and possibility... Now look at it. Dried up, dead, useless _– _much like you."_

The cold flame, the brooding light, the honourable thief. A study in contrasts, in contradictions.

_"Just who are you, Swan?"_  
_"Wouldn't you like to know?"_  
_"Perhaps I would."_

Resourceful, reckless, ruthless.

He and Emma were two of a kind, and that's why he'd wanted her.

Or so he'd thought.

* * *

_"I'll let you take someone with you _– _Emma."  
__"Emma would never leave her son."_

Milah had left hers.

He'd been so caught up in love, in living, in her, he hadn't really questioned it. They had always planned to go back for him.

Being back here, on this godforsaken island, on this quest, he'd realised something: she never should have left him in the first place.

He'd tried to put it right when Baelfire was on his ship, but not for the right reasons; not for the boy's sake. He'd done it to honour Milah's memory, to hold on to the last piece he had of her. But in the end, he'd let Bae go, had handed him over to Pan. From selfishness and self-preservation.

He and Milah were two of a kind; Emma was different.

* * *

Emma had a way of intruding, with her words, her passion, her entreaties.

_"Look out for yourself and you'll never get hurt, right? You can join us and be a part of something, or you can do what you do best, and be alone." _

A quickening of thought, a quiver of memory, harking back to long-dead days, long-dead siblings, long-dead honour...

He'd turned the ship around and began the journey back. To Neverland, to reparation.

To her.

_"She's starting to see me for who I am… A man of honour."_

With one kiss, Emma united his past and present, took the different pieces – pirate, thief, scoundrel; officer, gentleman, hero – and accepted the broken whole.

* * *

Falling to the deck, deathly pale; the beautiful brunette choked out a breath, and died.  
His heart broke within him.

Falling to the deck, deathly pale; the beautiful blonde choked out a breath, and lived.  
His heart beat again.

* * *

_"__My secret is that I never thought I'd be capable of letting go of my first love, my Milah. To believe I could find someone else. That is... until I met you."_

It's not the similarities that made him love her, it's the differences.


End file.
